


A

by theficisalie



Series: Runaway Scars [5]
Category: Bandom, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 05:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theficisalie/pseuds/theficisalie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thank you for your continued cooperation, citizen. Unfortunately, your existence is no longer necessary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A

**Author's Note:**

> beta: [kazzbot](http://kazzbot.livejournal.com)

They always walked in single file.

At the start of every day, the door to their cells would slide open and they would _walk briskly into the hall and face in one direction. Thank you for your cooperation._

Frank could only ever catch a glimpse of the face of whoever was in the cell to his left before he had to turn to face a row of white backs. He never saw the same face more than once.

“March,” a robotic voice said, deadpan and dead. It was one of the things in the white suits, jumpsuits like Frank and the rest of the people in this hellish building wore but with a hood that covered its face entirely. They never quite got the words right, there was always something off about the way they said them, like they were computer and not humans with proper, functioning mouths.

“Left,” the thing said, its white gun across its chest. Frank eyed the plastic instrument as he walked past, trying not to move his head to the side too much. Calling attention to yourself in this place generally garnered you some sort of punishment and his knees were still bruised from yesterday. He flicked his eyes back down to the white floor beneath his bare feet, feeling the heaviness of the robot’s gaze on his head.

“Your continued cooperation is appreciated,” the robot garbled, a phrase from somewhere in its primitive memory. One time, a short man with white hair had tried to ask the robot directing them where they were going, why they were going left, what the pill was they were taking. Frank remembered his own urge to do the same at the time, an urge he’d barely overcome when the white robot had raised its gun at the white-haired man’s ear. _Do not speak,_ it had instructed, _or you will be terminated._

Their jumpsuits didn’t have pockets like the robots’ did, so Frank just clenched his hands into fists at his sides as they walked, through identical white hallway after identical white hallway. There was no way of knowing where they were until they were led into a white elevator. It wasn’t one of the ones they were usually herded into. They were almost all identical except for a few differences Frank had noticed over the past however-the-fuck-long he’d been in here. The one they normally took before going to the room where they ran on treadmills all day had a small black dot in one corner, no doubt left there by some intrepid captive who’d likely been killed at some point. The one they took when they were going to the allergy room, where they sat for hours with needles in their arms, being tested for reactions, had a chip in its sliding doors, right near the top. The third one which led them to a room where they were put to sleep and woken up over and over again was slightly less well lit than the others, due to a single light bulb in the ceiling that refused to light up all the way.

This one was fresh and unmarked, as far as Frank could tell. Everyone else in the elevator seemed to be at ease though, so either they were going somewhere they’d all been before or they were going somewhere new.

New wasn’t good. New means bruises or rashes or something terrible that Frank hadn’t even thought up because he wasn’t nearly as fucked in the head as the higher-ups were.

“Exit,” the robot said, stock still from his position outside the elevator as they all filed down a white hall that looked like every single hallway in the fucking building.

A series of robot guards lined the hall, faces blandly decorated with the BLI logo, white guns clasped across their chests. They were ushered into a large room that reminded Frank of the abandoned warehouses he’d occasionally taken refuge in prior to his capture. They were told to stop and turn to their left, and then the robots left the room and the door they’d entered through slid shut.

 _“Thank you for volunteering for this project,”_ the intercom said. _“Your continued cooperation is greatly appreciated.”_

Frank shifted on his feet, starting to get restless. A soft noise from his right made him turn his head. One of the men in the lineup, a reedy fellow with hair as white as a mousekat's face, met Frank’s eyes with wide blue ones of his own.

He whispered something, but his voice was barely a scratch made by the wind. His cheeks were sunken; he was thin just like everyone else Frank had seen in this cursed place. Thin like Frank too, probably.

Frank shook his head as quickly as he could and returned to staring straight ahead. They weren’t supposed to talk. Not supposed to speak. Not allowed to open their mouths except to swallow their pills and pride.

“Bees,” the man whispered, louder. “They’re all bees, and we’re hiding in a hive of wasps, they’re, we’re honey, we make the honey and we all go around our lives building wax and walls and nothing will ever stop the wasps because they’ll eat us, devour us, bees, we’re all bees and we’re hiding in a hive --”

“That’s quite enough.” A door slid open, followed by a distinctive clack of white shoes on the white floor as the voice snaked through behind it.

Frank could almost feel the air stiffening with the way everyone in the line had straightened up, hiding themselves away from Korse in the starved shells that were all that remained of their bodies.

“Take that one,” Korse said, pointing to the man next to Frank.

The man sucked in a breath and grabbed Frank’s arm. “The queen,” he hissed, voice frantic. Frank tried to pull away without actually moving, but the robots pulled them apart with their mechanical hands before the man could do anything more.

“Tsk tsk,” Korse murmured. “You’re not supposed to talk, remember?” He motioned for the two robots to bring the struggling man up to him before he turned to the rest of them. “Today we’re going to be doing something new. You might have noticed that you get less rashes and you run faster now than you did when you first came to us. If you haven’t, then I’m telling you now that you’re becoming resistant to our pills and therefore are of no further use to us in this program.”

Korse cast a gleaming grin around the room. “Today we are going to dispose of those of you who BLI no longer considers an asset. Rawlins,” Korse said, turning suddenly to face the man who was still being held by two robots. “I’m so thrilled that you’ve volunteered to be our demonstration. What I want you to do,” he said, stroking the man’s cheek with one hand, “is fight for your life.”

“What?” Rawlins asked, eyes wide when the robots released him and stepped away. A third one came forward at Korse’s command and slid its legs apart in a defensive stance.

“Come, come,” Korse said. “You heard what I said. Go!”

The robot moved, as quickly as the pair that had taken Frank down had moved, with lightning-fast reflexes. Rawlins barely had enough time to look at his opponent before the white machine broke his nose and shoved him, head-first, into the floor.

“The insurgent has been terminated,” the robot said.

“Well done,” Korse said. “And so quickly, too. Well, I’ll leave you to it, pets. Ta.” He waved at them all, retreating as a robot came to stand in front of each of them. Rawlins was still sprawled on the floor, faded and broken.

“Oh, and before I go, one last thing,” Korse said, pausing right outside the sliding door. “The last one standing gets to live.”

The door closed with a soft noise that  did not match the violence of a moment ago. Frank took a deep breath and steadied his stance just like the robot in front of him was doing, fists loose at its sides.

_Extermination will begin in three._

_Two._

_One._


End file.
